This Week in Libraries: Dan Cohen, Director of the Digital Public Library of America

Note: LJ is pleased to announce a partnership with Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer to bring you monthly highlights from their video interview series, This Week in Libraries (TWIL).

For more on Boekesteijn and van de Geer, see the bio below.

Creating an open environment for reading and research; analyzing copyright shades of grey; and linking libraries, archives, and museums together to better explore new ways of accessing digital collections. This and much more in this week’s episode of TWIL: your weekly dose of library innovation!

Dear Subscribers and Viewers:
Episode 98 with Dan Cohen, CEO of DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) is recorded once again in DOK, the famous library concept center in Delft the Netherlands. In the last episode, we had the pleasure of talking to Julie-Anne Cardella, Director of the Westmount Public Library and Michael Elbaz, an MLS student in Montreal, Canada. It is wonderful to have to opportunity to gather and tell stories of libraries and librarians around the world and we feel fortunate that our sponsors make it possible for us to do so. And now, thanks to Library Journal, we can present the upcoming episodes on an even bigger platform —we welcome all new viewers and invite them to join in and express their views.

During the show we talk with Cohen about the launch of DPLA and its work toward that milestone. We talk about copyright, free access, and business models as well as how to bring vast and still rapidly growing digital collection to end users. We likewise touched on the role of the physical buildings and the work of Europeana. Cohen is absolutely passionate about the work of DPLA and he indicates that we are at the edge of a change to the the entire world of information. Digitalization of collections and access to them via the world wide web will have enormous consequences. As he notes, we have to make sure that we can raise awareness of the possibilities and make the search for information personal and appealing—and that is just what we librarians and libraries love to do with all our hearts.

Enjoy and see you next episode of This Week in Libraries, your regular dose of library innovation.

Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer are library innovators with a worldwide following. In 2007, they began a video project called Shanachie Tour, where they travel the globe to learn about and share library best practices. In 2008, they published a ShanachieTour book (tinyurl.com/shanachie). In 2009, they were the first Europeans to be named Movers and Shakers by Library Journal. In 2010, they co-founded Shanachie Media and were the first to start an online video talk show, called This Week in Libraries (www.ThisWeekInLibraries.com). In 2012, they co-founded Doklab, a private innovation consultancy that focuses on storytelling to connect people to collections (www.doklab.nl/en).
Previously, Erik and Jaap worked for DOK, the library concept center in Delft, the Netherlands (www.dok.info). DOK's unique community space and open-minded attitude toward innovation has won many awards, making it a well-known example of a 21st-century library. Erik, a communications specialist, first worked in the marketing and communication department, then in the innovation department. Jaap, a librarian by degree, built an ILS from scratch (called Clientrix), then was head of the science and innovation department. You can email them at thisweekinlibraries@gmail.com.